First Day in Ireland!!

Well, my parents and Tyler got me to the airport a-okay, had a little teary send off but all is well now.  I met up with two of my classmates, Julia and Mag as we were all on the same flight.  It was a little cramped on the flight and I only got about an hour of sleep or so.  Made it to Dublin and took a few pictures on the plane before we landed, I was pretty amused hahah. After everyone had arrived at the airport we made our way to Drogheda….not sure how far from Drogheda we are but we’re staying at a really, really nice hostel called NewGrange Lodge. 

About two minutes down the road was a historic site where we got to tour the NewGrange and Knowth mounds/burial places.  There was a third one, Dowth, but we didn’t make it to that one.  Basically, these mounds reminded me of Aztalan (reference for the Lake Mills people), except they had these short, very narrow tunnels that led into them.  At the ends of the paths were “basin rocks”, which basically looked like a bowl and there were a few of them at each end, one would hold ashes and another bones.  When they discovered these mounds they found skeletons along the paths, which is how they came to the conclusion of it being a burial place.  At NewGrange we were able to go inside all the way to the end and it was amazing.  In the middle of the opening at the end the rock/boulder ceiling went up in a cone-like fashion, big at the bottom and it got smaller and smaller until one rock could cover the opening.  And although it didn’t look this way, not a drop of water had leaked through that ceiling.  These were estimated to have been built before the pyramids and the stonehedge, I think they said about 5,000 years ago was when they had been built.  Obviously when these three mounds were discovered by the excavators, they just looked like another grassy hill of Ireland.  There’s a lot more history behind but basically it was incredibly amazing, simply because most of the boulders that form these mounds now, are the original boulders from when they were built 5,000 years ago.

Anyway, I’m typing this on a word document since our internet isn’t working at our hostel, but they’re currently working on it.  I’m crossing my fingers because as sad as it is, I need to go on Facebook!  I’m dying to let all of you know that I made it safely and that I’m having a blast so far! A little motion sickness, which is weird for me, and also a little homesickness.  I’m trying not to let it bring me down though!!!  I know these three weeks are going to fly, I just wish all of you could be with me as I love you and miss you all SSSSOOOOOO MMMMUUUCCCHHH!!!  Tomorrow we're doing a bunch of stuff so it should be another busy day!! Hopefully I'll get internet connection again tomorrow so I can keep updating everyone :)  Cross your fingers!!